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Date Posted: 05:45:02 04/11/02 Thu
Author: tyche
Subject: Regressions, resets and very spoilery speculation on the end of S6

Uh, long post title. Sorry.
Disclaimer: I am not a Spike redemptionista or B/S shipper. If you are, you may find aspects of this post offensive. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Okay, cards on table.
I think S6 is heading towards a reset. Why? Because all the characters are regressing. Not to mention engaging in behaviour which we've seen before. And Tara, the only character who hasn't regressed, the one who's held everything together and been a tower of strength, is eliminated from the picture altogether. (Presumably as her reward for being a)sensible, b) strong, c) good and d)a lesbian. I'm a W/T shipper so I'm ever so slightly bitter about this...)
Anyway, regressions:
ANYA AND SPIKE
Anya: Regressing to vengeance demon, although she cannot elminate her human feelings entirely.
Spike: Regressing to the vampire he used to be, or William. Either way, it's a retrograde step. If he's de-chipped, then there's no reason not to stake him.
The best analogy probably being: if there was a mass murderer living in your neighbourhood who wasn't quite sure if he was good or not and whether or not he would kill people again, what would you do for the good of the general population? If you had any sense of morality whatever, you'd kill him or turn him over to the police. The police option is essentially removed for the Scoobies, since Sunnydale PD doesn't believe in vampires and demons and would be unlikely to prosecute Spike for crimes committed during his time as a vamp. (Ditto to all the above for Anya, incidentally, although the difference is that she was commissioned to commit her crimes. The difference between Anya and Spike is the difference between being a hired assassin and a serial killer. Doesn't make much difference to their victims, of course, though I actually reckon that Anya's body count is considerably less than that of Spike, given that she was only called on when required and that some of her victims got away with being turned into trolls or having a nasty case of boils on the penis.) If Spike gets his soul back and becomes human (bleurghhhhhhh - sorry, just had a vision of a pregnant Buffy walking into the sunset with a human Spike at the end of the series...), then he'll be forced to confront his actions as a vampire. Or will he? On Spike's past form (blaming everybody else for everything that he's ever done, or is that just his fans?), I'd say that he might not be that bothered. Either that, or he'll have a moment when he wakes up one morning and realises that he's just like Angel. Now *that* would be funny.
Anyway, on the information we have at the moment, it looks very much as if Anya and Spike are both regressing to their past selves, not progressing towards being moral beings.

BUFFY
Buffy has definitely regressed to almost exactly where she was post-Angel breakup, only with added severe depression. She was, supposedly, 'over the bad boy thing', but the Spike shaggage (sorry, I refuse to call it a relationship) has been a huge step backwards for her in terms of both mental health and self-image. The paradox of this season is that she's survived being a Slayer for so long because of her friends, but this year her friends have put her through hell. She tried to derive strength from her couplings with Angel, Riley, and Spike .. but ultimately, they brought her little except misery. I think she will have to learn to survive on her own. We know that, when the chips are down, that's exactly what she can do. But we haven't seen it lately. Something has to bring back the old (pre-season 6) Buffy. The whole thing with Spike means that she is no longer remotely credible as either a moral heroine or as a feminist (or post-feminist, feminist aware, take your pick) icon. If, like BtVS, your show is a 'hero-quest' drama, and the main character in your show, the hero of your quest, isn't a moral person, then you're pretty much screwed in terms of dramatic crediblity. By deciding to pursue B/S, the producers have hugely compromised the morality of Buffy, their hero. When she began to be the kind of person who laughs at jokes about the deaths of the innocent bystanders she's supposed to protect, she effectively ceased to be a moral heroine. At this point, I should say that if you're planning to read me the riot act in terms of 'shades of grey', yadda, yadda, yadda .. don't bother. BtVS has always been a very moral show in terms of the divisions it makes between good and evil. Sure, some of the actions the characters have made in pursuit of the greater good were not always within the law (Giles killing Ben springs to mind), but they were almost always for the greater purpose of protecting innocents, always with a greater moral purpose in mind. That's why the Scooby Gang are the main characters of the show, and not the Geek Troika and Faith: the inherent morality of their choices sets them apart, otherwise, why bother to make a distinction in the first place? If Buffy's not going to be a moral heroine, then what's the point of the show? Almost the whole of season 6 for Buffy has either been regression or total pain, and her attempts to ameliorate that pain have taken her further and further away from her ultimate purpose, her job: to protect the innocent.

WILLOW
Willow, in the final few episodes of the season, regresses to exactly the same place that she was in 'Tough Love'. So, what's been the point of her arc this season? What exactly is the point of showing her battling addiction and winning only to regress so horribly? And the most ironic thing is that, in saving Buffy and in killing Warren, she is helping to protect and avenge the innocent. So what's the message? Sometimes magic is bad, sometimes it's good? Well, I think anyone with a brain would have got that message by now. Let's destroy a perfectly good character so that Spike fans have someone else to beat up on other than Xander and Buffy? Unless Willow's redemption is shown as a contrast to any attempts Spike might make at redemption (and, ooh, taking a wild guess at which character fans of Spike will be able to label as 'evil and beyond redemption'), or Buffy's attempts to regain her moral purpose in life, then the entire storyline will have been completely pointless. Unless it's ultimately a red herring leading to a reset...

DAWN
Dawn regresses to the exact point that she was in 'The Body': traumatised by the death of a mother figure.

XANDER
Xander has almost regressed to his high-school self this season: flighty and afraid of responsibility. His abandonment of Anya showed this most clearly. The deep-seated insecurities and feelings of inadequacy he thought he'd conquered last year are back with a bang. At the root of it all, he's still a people-pleaser: he conjured Sweet to try and make people happy. But almost every step he's made towards maturity has backfired horribly.

So, as we approach the season finale, the Scoobies are all at various places we've seen them at before. I think this repetition is entirely deliberate - things aren't supposed to be right. If there's some way of having a reset and maintaining their memories of everything that's happened this season, then that would be progress, not regression. Because if you're only going to repeat all the mistakes you've made in the past, why bother growing up? Why bother going on at all? Those are the questions we have to answer now, and that's why a reset would be progress, not further regression.

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